COURSE SYLLABUS

School of Management
The University of Texas at Dallas

Course: OPRE6302-502 Operations Management

Instructor: Dr. Chelliah Sriskandarajah
Semester: Spring 2006

Course Information
Objective: Operations management is a dynamic discipline. It involves a study of the opera-
tional issues relevant to the numerous activities and processes involved in offering products and
services in a highly competitive global environment. This course provides an introduction to the
concepts and analytic methods that are useful in understanding the management of firm’s op-
erations. The level of analysis varies considerably, from operations strategy to daily control of
business processes and inventory. The objective of this course is to assist students in building the
skills necessary to participate actively in decision making involving operations management issues.

The course provides exposure to:

• concepts and tradeoffs associated with a firm’s operations,

• an introduction to basic analytical tools useful in examining operations issues, and

• an opportunity to gain experience in tackling operations management problems.

Instructor Information: Chelliah Sriskandarajah is a Professor at the School of Management

of the University of Texas at Dallas. He has a Ph.D degree from the Higher National School
of Electrical Engineering of the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble (France) in the field
of Production and Operations Research. His research revolves around solving various production
planning and scheduling problems with the aim of making the production process more economical
and efficient. His research interests lie in the general area of production planning and scheduling,
supply chain management, logistics, and performance evaluation of production systems. He has
published over 75 scholarly articles in leading journals. Over the years, his research has been sup-
ported by a number of sponsors including National Science Foundation (USA), Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council (Canada), Manufacturing Research Cooperation of Ontario
(Canada) and NATO. He is an associate editor of INFOR and is a member of INFORMS, POMS,
IIE, IEEE, DSI and CORS.

Office : SOM 3.404

Phone : (972) 883-4047
E-mail: chelliah@utdallas.edu
Homepage: http://www.utdallas.edu/ chelliah
Teaching Assistant: Ms. Gokcen Arkali, Office: SOM 3.205
E-mail: gxa023000@utdallas.edu

Office hours by Ms. Gokcen Arkali: Every Tuesday starting 17 January 2006 at SOM
3.205: 5:00PM - 7:00PM.

Office hours by Dr. C. Sriskandarajah, office SOM 3.404: Every Wednesday starting
18 January 2006 : 4:30PM - 6:30PM.

Course Materials
Text: Managing Business Process Flow by R. Anupindi, S. Chopra, S.D. Deshmukh, J.A. Van
Mieghem, E. Zemel, Second Edition, Prentice Hall, 2006.

Case Pack: Case pack can be obtained at UTD bookstore. The case ”CRU Computer Rental”
can be downloaded form http://www.prenhall.com/anupindi (go to the web site, click begin, go
to student resources, locate the case and download)

For additional reading: Production/Operations Management by William J. Stevenson, Sixth

Edition, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 1999.

Textbooks and some other bookstore materials can be ordered online through MBS Direct Virtual
Bookstore. They are also available in UTD Bookstore and Off-Campus Books.

Student Assessment:
Grading Information

• Mid-term Quiz: 15%

• Final Exam: 40%

• Case Studies: a total of 20% for case studies #2 and #3 (full report due) and a total of 10%
for case studies #1 and #4 (short report due).

• Assignments: a total of 15% for three assignments.

Class Participation : While no grade is assigned to class participation, the students are encour-
aged to participate in class discussion.

Attendance : It is expected that students will attend all class. It is customary to inform
the instructor in advance if a student has to miss a class. It is student’s responsibility to make-up
for missed classes.

You can check your grades (at WebCT) by accessing“My Grade” icon on Student Tools page
after the grade for each assessment task is released.

Assignments must be returned on the specified due dates. You may discuss the assignments
with others but make sure that you complete the work independently. Number of Assignments:
3.

The WebCT bulletin board can be utilized to exchange ideas or to seek hints on how to get
started on the assigned problems. This is intended to provide an active learning environment;
therefore, such exchanges should be limited to “conceptual discussions”, as opposed to the posting
of detailed solutions. Thus, it is the responsibility of each student to prepare and submit written
solutions to the assignments independently. The solution to each assignment will be posted after
its due date.

Assignment submission instructions: You will submit your assignments (in the required
file format with a simple file name and a file extension, no space or special characters) by using
the Assignment Dropbox tool on the course site (WebCT). Please see the Assignments icon on the
designated page. You can click each assignment name link and follow the on-screen instructions
to upload your file(s) and submit it. Please refer to the Help menu or the WebCT Student Guide
for more information on using this tool. Please note: each assignment link can only be used for
submission for one time and will be deactivated after the assignment due time. After your submis-
sion is graded, you may click each assignment’s “Graded” link to check the results and feedback.
Assignments will not be accepted by Fax.

Group Assignments
Case projects: Case study reports must be returned on the specified due dates. These are
group projects. You will be assigned to a group of no more than four students. Each group selects
a representative and informs the instructor the name of the group representative. The group rep-
resentative is responsible for submitting the project report on behalf of his/her group. The names
of group members must be printed on the front page of the report. Number of case projects: 4 (2
short reports, 2 full reports).

Students switching groups is not encouraged. However, if a student wants to switch to a group,
then he/she must find a student in the target group who is willing to switch to his/her group. Once
this mutual switch is agreed upon, both students must inform the instructor about the switch–no
later than January 17, 2006.

Groups will be assigned at the beginning of the class. Please see the Groups icon for the list
of groups. Each group can also use the group area for file exchanges within the group. Please
click the WebCT Help menu on how to use the features of the group tool. A private discussion
forum will be set up on Discussions board for each group for group communications.

Mid-term Tests/Quizzes: A mid-term quiz is scheduled on February 28, 2006, 7:00 - 10:00
pm. The format will be multiple-choice questions. The syllabus will span the material covered in
all the lectures before the quiz. The exam is closed-book. No make up exams will be given.

Final Exam: A final exam is scheduled on April 25, 2006, 7:00 - 10:00 pm under the
supervision of the instructor. The format will be multiple-choice questions. The exam is closed-
book. No make up exams will be given.

Scholastic Dishonesty:
The University has policies and discipline procedures regarding scholastic dishonesty. Detailed
information is available on Scholastic Dishonesty web page. All students are expected to maintain
a high level of responsibility with respect to academic honesty. Students who violate University
rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of
failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Since such dishonesty harms the in-
dividual, all students and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be
strictly enforced.

Practice Problems:
These problems will help the students apply the concepts discussed during the lectures. Stu-
dents are free to discuss these problems amongst themselves and need not submit the solutions.
The solutions to each set of practice problems will be posted a week after the set is posted.

WEEK DATE PRACTICE PROBLEMS REMARKS

2 Jan. 17-23 Tutorial #0 Discuss
Tutorial #1 Do not Submit
3 Jan. 24-30 Tutorial #2 Discuss
Do not Submit
5 Feb. 7-13 Tutorial #3 Discuss
Do not Submit
7 Feb. 21-27 Tutorial #4 Discuss
Do not Submit
9 Mar. 14-20 Tutorial #5 Discuss
Do not Submit
10 Mar. 21-27 Tutorial #6 Discuss
Do not Submit
11 Mar. 28-Apr. 3 Tutorial #7 Discuss
Do not Submit
12 Apr. 4-10 Tutorial #8 Discuss
Do not Submit
14 Apr. 18-24 Tutorial #9 Discuss
Do not Submit
Course Outline/Schedule:

WEEK DATES TOPICS/ READING ASSIGNMENT/

LECTURE ACTIVITY
1 Jan. 10-16 Lecture 1 Chap. 1,2 (main text) Shouldice Case (#1)
Chap. 1,2 (Stevenson) Report due: Jan. 24
2 Jan. 17-23 Lecture 2 Chap. 1,2 (main text)
Chap. 1,2,6 (Stevenson)
3 Jan. 24-30 Lectures 3, 4 Chap. 3,4 (main text) Assignment 1
Due: Jan. 31
4 Jan. 31-Feb. 6 Lecture 4 Chap. 3,4 (main text) CRU Case (#2)
Discuss Report due: Feb. 14
CRU Case
5 Feb. 7-13 Lecture 5 Chap. 4,5 (main text)
6 Feb. 14-20 Lecture 6 Chap. 6 (main text)
Chap. 3,13,16 (Stevenson)

7 Feb. 21-27 Discuss NCC Case (#3)

NCC Case Report due: Mar. 14
8 Feb. 28 Exam Mid-term Quiz
Date: Feb. 28
9 Mar. 14-20 Lecture 8 Chap. 7 (main text) Assignment 2
Chap. 13 (Stevenson) Due: Mar. 28
10 Mar. 21-27 Lectures 9, 10 Chap. 9 (main text) Hank Kolb Case (#4)
Chap. 9,10,11 (Stevenson) Report due: Apr. 4
11 Mar. 28-Apr. 3 Lecture 11 MRP
Chap. 14 (Stevenson)
12 Apr. 4-10 Lecture 12 Aggregate Planning
Chap. 12 (Stevenson)
13 Apr. 11-17 Lecture 13 Aggregate Planning Assignment 3
Chap. 12 (Stevenson) Due: Apr. 18

14 Apr. 18-24 Lecture 14 Chap. 10 (main text)

Discuss Chap. 15 (Stevenson)
Toyota Case
15 Apr. 25 Exam Week Final Exam
Date: Apr. 25
Use of WebCT
The course materials and students’ grades can be accessed using a web course tool called We-
bCT.

Technical Requirements

In addition to a confident level of computer and Internet literacy, certain minimum technical
requirement must be met to enable a successful learning experience. Technical requirements in-
clude but not limited to:

Hardware:
• A Pentium processor or equivalent Mac system; Windows 98/Me/2000/XP or Mac OS 9.x
or OS X 10.1.

• Internet access with modem or preferably with other faster connections.

• 32 MB system Ram; 200 MB free disk space or sufficient storage.

• CD-ROM capabilities.

Software:
• Netscape Navigator 4.7x or higher (but 4.78, 4.79 and 6.0-6.1 not supported), or Internet
Explorer 5.0 to 6.0 (but 5.5 SP1 not supported). See browser configuration info below.

• MS Office 97/98 is the minimum standard. (Microsoft software is available at a nominal cost
from UTD Microsoft Program. For more information, visit Global MBA Online Student
Service web page at: http://som.utdallas.edu/globalmba/service.htm).

• Virus detection/protection software such as McAfee.

• “Plug-ins” tools such as current version of RealPlayer/RealOne Player (available at:

http://www.real.com/realone/index.html) and Adobe Acrobat Reader (available at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html).

• A zip file expansion tool such as WinZip or Stuffit Expander (available at:
http://www.download.com).

Web Browser Configuration:

For the WebCT courses to work properly, you need one of the WebCT supported browsers listed
above with JavaScript enabled and cookie enabled. It is also important that you set the cache
settings of your browser to verify web documents “Every Time”. The methods for configuring
these settings vary among browsers. Please follow this web link provided by WebCT to tune-up
your browser:http://www.webct.com/tuneup/.

Course Access and Navigation:

To access WebCT, you need to have a UTD NetID and password (your UTD Unix/Email ID
and password) to access the course. If you have not used a UTD NetID account yet, you can go to
https://netid.utdallas.edu/ to initiate your account shortly before or at the start of the semester.
Your UTD NetID is your WebCT ID to be used to log on to the UTD WebCT courses. For
more information, please check out this NetID FAQs page. The URL for the course login page is:
http://webct.utdallas.edu. You can login to the course whenever you want. You are required to
meet any deadlines for the assignments and exams and also any schedules for class activities or
tasks the course requires. You should login to the course site regularly to check course updates,
discussion board messages and so on.

You’ll access “My WebCT” page after you login. The page listed all the courses you’ve regis-
tered. You can click the course title to access the course Home page which displays several icon
links. Clicking each icon link will take you to different subsidiary pages containing the course
content elements or built-in course tools. Some navigation components such as the Navigation
Bar with Course Menu on the left side, the Menu Bar and the path link on the top and the Action
Menu on the content page can help you navigate within the course site.

To get started with a WebCT course, please see Getting started: Student WebCT Orientation.
For more information about WebCT tool usage, please see the WebCT’s Student Help Index.
Within the course site, you can always click HELP on the WebCT Menu Bar to find information
and answers. You can also check out the Orientation Center to Online Learning and WebCT
provided on WebCT’s web site. For more WebCT information and its learning resources, visit
http://www.webct.com.

If you have any problem with your UTD account or connection to the UTD WebCT server,
you may email to: assist@utdallas.edu or call UTD computer help call center at: 972-883-2911.